Chase Pastor, Chase!

Chapter 24

Almost 4 years since I last saw this face. The face I've been seeing inside my dreams and my lonely thoughts in the night. The one that had me crying for years. The one that I've been praying to see again.

I couldn't believe the person in front of me, it felt like an illusion or just my imagination. But it's real, he's in front of me, gazing at me like I am one of the paintings here.

My mind was panicking and kept asking questions. Those questions I had for years and years are now in front of me, standing and waiting for something. But I only stood and stared, processing the sight I am looking at, not knowing if it was my delusions again.

I felt my hand shaking and I fisted. I don't know what I look like right now, a fool waiting for his return or a mad maiden who's confused. I waited for him to walk to me and do something but he didn't. He let me stare at him like I'm seeing a miracle happening.

My knees were trembling but I still managed to stand and continue looking at him. Am I turning into a crazy woman who's imagining things right now?

I didn't know what to say, feel, and what to do. Emotions were mixed up, filling inside me, anguish, fear, dismay, comfort, sorrow, longing, and puzzling. Now I can relate to some kdramas, the feeling of not knowing what do to when you see the person you've been longing for a long time and just stare at them like a fool.

He's still in his usual attire yet it still gives me butterflies, his face hasn't changed a bit, I don't think he even aged. I'm scared to flinch because maybe it's just my hallucinations and he'll be gone... again.

I was looking at him deeply that I didn't even notice I was tearing up, they dropped off my eyes more quickly than usual. I bit my lower lip, stopping my mouth to make a sob. I closed my eyes, my tears falling, thinking he'll be gone when I open my eyes but then I felt a warm embrace, caressing my head to rest into his chest and pour out my emotions.

And I cried heavily. Like a kid who lost his parent in the middle of the crowd with no one. He hugged me tightly as I cry and wet his shirt, but that's nothing to think of right now. Please, Lord, if I am dreaming wake me up right now.

My sob echoed down the hall. I wanted to stop crying pero hindi ko mapigilan, I've kept this pain inside me for the past years and now I felt like I'm a bottled glass that's full of water inside that's now broken, continually pouring out all the pain inside.

It felt like he carried all the burden inside me. Like he stepped into my broken pieces, bleeding.

"I'm sorry for taking so long"

Hearing his voice again made me howl more, my body became heavier to me and I hold on tight to him. Please don't ever leave me again, I want this to be a happy ending.

All those years I spent alone, now you're here, currently embracing me tight, feeling my pain. His shirt was wet and I looked up at him with dreary eyes. I can feel him holding his tears, his eyes say it all. I never really thought this day would come, not now.

I had always felt like something was missing within me, like a puzzle with an incomplete piece that prevented me from being whole. But when I saw him again, it was as if he was that missing piece, and suddenly everything clicked into place. He filled the gaps in my soul that I didn't even know were there, completing me in a way that I never thought possible.

Fuck, I look like a weirdo right now, howling in front of him. He touched my cheek and I felt comfort shoved inside me, like my soul entering my body again. Wiping my tears away and all my emotions, making me feel like I am now whole.

He was the missing puzzle piece,
that made my soul whole, my heart leap, and in his embrace, I found love that runs deep.

"Zac?" I speak my heart out. The only word that escaped my mouth the whole time.